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A BART police officer patrols the Downtown Berkeley BART Station in Berkeley, Calif., on Tuesday, July 18, 2017. Calls for BART to rely on mutual aid from neighboring police departments or hire private security are a non-starter for BART’s police union, it’s president said Tuesday. (File photo Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)

Despite increasing unease over safety on BART, calls for the agency to rely on mutual aid from neighboring police departments or hire private security to patrol parking lots and garages are a non-starter for the transit agency’s police union, its president said Tuesday.

BART has proposed a $28 million security plan that its governing board will consider Thursday. As part of the plan, on Monday, BART officers, fare inspectors, dispatchers and civilian personnel began working 60-hour work weeks for the next three weeks.

That isn’t sustainable, a spokeswoman said Monday, but it’s unclear how, after that three-week period ends, the agency plans to address the heightened safety concerns following severalhigh-profile crimes on the system, including the July stabbing death of 18-year-old Nia Wilson.

Jim Wunderman, executive director and CEO of the Bay Area Council, a business organization that led the charge to create BART more than a half century ago, on Tuesday called on the agency to ask for mutual aid from neighboring police departments. BART, which shuttles around 432,000 passengers each day, is vital to the region’s economy, Wunderman said.

Officers in police departments from the cities BART serves could partner with BART police to augment patrols, he said. It’s a practice used throughout the Bay Area when there are large demonstrations, natural disasters or other events.

“Clearly, BART is significantly under-resourced for the job at hand,” he said. “Clearly, criminal elements are targeting BART, and now the problems have risen to a level that demand a much more aggressive response.”

That model has been tried in the past, said BART police Officer Keith Garcia, president of the BART Police Officers’ Association. And, it failed, he said.

“That’s why BART has its own police department,” he said. “They weren’t policing BART, because officers in city departments have more important things to do. BART had no control over it.”

Retired Redwood City police captain Ron Matuszak suggested the department hire private security for its parking lots and garages, so officers could focus on patrolling trains and stations.

Instead, Garcia says BART should increase its salaries, so it could better attract and retain officers. The agency is looking to fill 25 officer vacancies and will face upwards of 50 officer retirements in the next three years, he said. It’s competing with other agencies that are also struggling to attract officers.

“We can’t attract people to our department, and we can’t keep the good people we have because BART doesn’t want to pay us a good wage,” he said.

The time to do that is now, Garcia said, while the union renegotiates its contract.

Erin Baldassari covers transportation, the Bay Area's housing shortage and breaking news. She served on the East Bay Times' 2017 Pulitzer Prize winning team for its coverage of the Ghost Ship fire. But most of all, she cares deeply about local news and hopes you do, too. If you'd like to support local journalism, please subscribe today.

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